SCIENCE

Samsung Electronics announced production of its high-performance micro Secure Digital (microSD) cards with advanced data transfer speeds that support the performance requirements on fourth generation (4G) smartphones. The new 20-nanometer-class microSD cards have a class 10 speed rating suitable for seamless data storage and transmission of full HD video, one of the features becoming highly popular among 4G smartphone users.

“The industry demand for high-class-rated memory cards addresses the growing performance push for next generation mobile applications in more advanced smartphones including 4G models,” said Wanhoon Hong, executive vice president, memory sales & marketing, Samsung Electronics. ”As the industry adopts microSD cards with a class 10 rating, the superior data transfer speeds are expected to improve the mobile user experience tremendously.”

The new 32GB microSD cards can write at 12 megabytes per second (MB/s) and read at 24MB/s, providing users with more than double the maximum write speeds of a class 4 rated 32GB microSD card. The new 32GB memory card incorporates 32Gb 3-bit NAND flash memory chips and a proprietary 3-bit NAND controller to deliver the high performance.

The new card follows the introduction of Samsung’s 30 nanometer (nm) class, 32 gigabit (Gb) 3-bit-per-cell (3-bit) NAND-based 32 gigabyte (GB) microSD cards in February 2010. By applying the finer 20-nm-class process technology, the productivity of the chips is raised over 30 percent.

As an industry pioneer, Samsung plans to continue to aggressively introduce new NAND-based mobile memory solutions for timely market adoption. Mass production of its 20nm-class 64Gb 3-bit NAND designed on advanced toggle NAND architecture is anticipated for early next year.